Chapter 50

Track 34. Forget You, Jennie

Jennie

"I just tried to…"

I couldn't stop crying. I wiped tears away for what felt like forever, feeling my heart race as memories of that night flooded my brain. Then I raced through the remaining fourteen chapters, reading them faster than I'd ever read anything before. When I reached the epilogue, I had to force myself to stop.

She didn't say that I had to read the epilogue. I need to save something for myself.

I returned to a section that I wanted to reread once more, paying special attention to lines I never knew. It was the last paragraph in the chapter about our senior year in high school, and I couldn't help but stare at it for a very long time.

I never told Jennie why I did what I did in that bathroom—why I told that guy that she was a slut, while she was in earshot. I tried to convince myself that it was because she wouldn't believe me.

To this day, it's my biggest regret. I should've gone to her house later, sat her down, and told her the entire story. Because even then, I had feelings for her. I just didn't think I was ready for them.

"Um, Jennie?" The sound of someone saying my name made me shut the binder and look up, right into a spotlight.

How the hell is it this late already?

"Are you okay? You look distraught," the voice spoke again, and I blinked a few times. Then I looked to my left and saw one of the ship's female supervisors.

"I'm fine," I said. "I was just reading."

"Well, when you get done 'just reading,' you can write your professor a letter about why you decided to skip her class today." She shook her head and thrust a yellow post-it in my face. "After you deal with this, of course. The lead counselor received this for you a few minutes ago."

A woman named Stella has an emergency message for you. Wants you to video/Skype her ASAP.

Feel free to use extra satellite minutes, if need be.

I immediately stood to my feet. Grabbing the binder and the extra sheets, I rushed down the hall and took the elevator to the eighth deck. With my mind racing a mile a minute, I tried not to panic, but all types of thoughts crossed my mind.

Please don't let anything happen to my dad. Please, please, please.

I took a seat at a computer and typed in the passcode, nervously tapping my fingers as the internet connection slowly dialed.

Once it was set, I opened Skype and dialed Stella's number.

It rang once. It rang twice.

The screen blurred, and she and my father appeared.

"Hey, there, Jennie!" they said in unison, waving.

"Hey." I let out a sigh of relief. "What's going on? Are you sick, Dad? Are you losing the house? Filing for bankruptcy?"

The two of them exchanged glances and burst into loud laughter.

"Oh god, Jennie." He held a hand against his chest. "What the heck are you talking about?"

"This note," I said, holding it up. "It said you had an emergency message for me."

"We said it was urgent, not an emergency." He wiped away a few stray tears. "No one is dying, and no one is losing anything."

"Then what's the message?"

"We just want you to know that we've talked to Lisa," he said, smiling.

"I'm aware of that." I blinked. "We were skyping the two of you like five days ago, remember?"

"Right." He smiled even wider, looking like a little kid. "Well, we were planning to meet you two at the next port, but they've grounded outgoing flights to our layover city for the rest of the weekend. We'll have to figure out where we can meet you next. Just know that everything is fine, as long as you tell us everything later. Oh, and make sure you tell her that we love her."

I said nothing. I just stared at them. If there was ever an award for the most pointless phone call, this was definitely in the running for a spot in the top five.

"Was there anything in this call for me, Dad?" I tilted my head to the side. "You know, your daughter?"

"We love you, too." He laughed. "Oh, and I'm still putting your next care package together. It should meet you within two ports."

"Thank you," I said, rolling my eyes. "Remind me to sit you and Stella down when I get home, so we can talk about what the word 'urgent' means."

He laughed louder and blew me a kiss before ending the call.

Before I could even begin to process what the hell that was about, my Skype account beeped with a new call from Joy.

Answering it, I smiled as her face appeared on the screen.

"Hey there, Jen!" She placed her hand against her chest. "I'm so glad I caught you! Did I miss it? Give me all the details!"

"Miss what?" I shrugged. "What details?"

"We haven't missed it." Bambam appeared onscreen next to her and kissed her cheek. "I told you she would call you when it happened."

I gave them a blank stare.

"We're talking about um—Forget You, Jennie," Penelope said. "We loved it, but we wanted to get your reaction. She emailed us about finally making you finish it."

"It's good," I said.

"Did you read the whole thing?" She tilted her head to the side. "Like, with the epilogue?"

I nodded, and she shook her head.

"She definitely didn't…" She and Bambam burst into laughter.

"Okay, then," she said, "We'll call you tomorrow. Can you try to get online at the same time?"

"Sure…" I logged off the call and shook my head. Two pointless phone calls in a row.

I need to make them add money to my Skype account for doing this.

As I was trying to figure out what the hell they were talking about, Lisa walked into the room. The sight of her-with her pearly white smile to match, sent butterflies fluttering in my stomach.

Was there an event onboard today that I forgot about? The business party isn't until four days from now.

"My dad wants you to know that he loves you," I said, turning off the computer. "Oh, and he seems to think that you need to know that everything is fine, as long as I tell him all about my day later." I paused. "Do you think he's losing his memory this early?"

She laughed. "Not at all, but thanks for telling me what he said."

"Oh, and Bambam and Joy called. They finished your book and said they liked it."

"No, they loved it." She laughed, moving closer and reaching for my hand. "I need to talk to you about something."

"Right now?"

"Yes, right now." She helped me to my feet and clasped my hand, leading me out of the room. "How'd you feel about the remaining chapters of the book?"

"They were pretty good for a debut, I guess." I tried not to feed her ego.

"That's all it was? Pretty good?"

"It may get a reread once a year." More like once a week.

"What about the extra chapter of us at the make-up prom?" She led me into the main lounge, where the wall of panoramic windows gave a sweeping view of the sea.

"I think you should include it in the book," I said. "But after reading the entire thing, I'm wondering what might've happened if the characters hadn't agreed to erase that night from their memories."

"Why's that?"

"Maybe they wouldn't have fallen out right before college if they just admitted their feelings for each other," I said, feeling a bit of regret. "Maybe if the heroine knew certain things the other had done on her behalf instead of assuming that—Well, you know."

"Yeah." She nodded. "How'd you feel about the epilogue?"

"It was good. Great." I shrugged.

"What happened in it?"

"They lived happily ever after."

"Give me the details like you normally do, Jennie."

"Um…" I searched for an answer. "Well, they um…"

That familiar sexy smile spread across her face. "You're still attempting to hold off on reading some of it, aren't you?"

"Yes." I felt my cheeks reddening. "But it's not because I don't want to. It's so I can have something to savor later…It's more than 'pretty good,' Lisa. It's fucking perfect. And I think you may have ruined me from reading other books for a while, because I can honestly tell you that I'm just going to reread yours for the next several weeks."

"I'm honored that you feel that way, Jennie," she said, brushing a few stray hairs from my face. "Unfortunately, I have to spoil the ending for you right now."

"You wouldn't dare." I narrowed my eyes at her. "If you do, you know that will put you at the top of my shit list until—"

"We fuck again," she said, kissing me. "I have to, though. You clearly can't be trusted to finish it any time soon, and I've attempted to pull this off several different times. If you keep refusing to finish, we'll never get to the best part."

"What are you talking about?"

She let out a sigh and pulled a black box from her pocket, then she got down on one knee and looked up at me.

"Jennie Kim…" she said, and I immediately felt tears pricking my eyes. "I've previously told you that I loved you since I was seven and a half years old. But over the years, I honestly can't deny that while you've definitely been my number one enemy at times, you've always been my best friend." She looked into my eyes. "I never told you this, but your mother wrote me a letter right before she passed, and I…I didn't open it until you stopped talking to me when we broke up, when you decided to return to Semester at Sea. She said that she always thought that we should end up together. If we weren't already, she said that I should immediately take you out. Of course, I was already fucking miserable since you weren't talking to me at that point, and I never want to feel that way, or be without you, for that long again."

I tried to hold it together, but it was no use. My heart was pounding against my chest, and tears were falling down my face.

"I know we're only twenty-two and a half right now, but I want you to be by my side from now until we're one hundred and a half, too. I don't want to go another day without knowing that you'll be mine forever, because I know that I've always been yours…"

I cried a little harder as she squeezed my hand.

"I know we've always signed off on all our letters with 'Forget You', but I've never been able to truly forget you, Jennie. I never will…"

She took the ring from the box and gently placed it at the tip of my finger. "Jennie Kim, will you marry me?"

"Yes." I barely managed as she stood up to kiss me. "Well, wait. Under one small condition."

"What condition is that?"

"Since you've somewhat spoiled it, I want you to tell me exactly how you wrote this part in your book."

She smiled and kissed me again. "Honestly? It's written in the exact same way…"

The End.